Abstract

MEDINA ARBOLEDA, IVÁN FELIPE  and  PARAMO, PABLO. PERCEPTION OF BOGOTA'S CITIZENS ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY, DEGREE OF OPTIMISM AND ALLOCATION OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE IMPAIRMENT. Act.Colom.Psicol. [online]. 2014, vol.17, n.1, pp.105-118. ISSN 0123-9155.

This study explores the perception of citizens of the city of Bogota (Colombia) on the current state of the environment at local, national and global level, and the prospect of what it will be in the future, in order to provide guidance for the development of environmental components of citizenship education. It also investigates the allocation of responsibility for environmental management in the future. Participants were 118 people, men and women aged over 18 years with different levels of schooling. The instruments used were the Environmental Future Scale by Gifford et al. (2009) to which two items relevant to the assessment of the environment in Colombia were incorporated, and the Allocation Scale for Environmental Responsibility by Barros, Pinheiro and Gunther (2010). Results showed moderate pessimism for the national level, and high for the international and local case. Regarding the allocation of responsibility, an external locus of control was identified in terms of the causes of environmental degradation, where the main actors mentioned were other people and the national government. Findings are discussed in terms of a comparison with similar studies elsewhere in the world and of its implications for promoting proenvironmental behavior and the attribution of responsibility on the part of the citizens of Bogota, as well as the effect of the media assessing the state of the environment.

Keywords : environmental attitudes; allocation of responsibility; Environmental Future Scale.

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